Dehradun, 14 July: “Swasthya Chintan Shivir, a national meeting, enables sharing of insights, best practices, valuable experiences, and suggestions from various states to enrich our policies aimed at designing schemes for largest beneficiary welfare.” This was stated by Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviyaas who inaugurated a two day long Swasthya Chintan Shivir – the 15th Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare – in Dehradun on Friday at Hotel Hyatt Regency near Rajpur. He was joined by the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Chief Minister of Sikkim, Prem Singh Tamang, Union Ministers of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, and Prof SP Singh Baghel, and Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog.
In his inaugural address, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya underlined the focus of the deliberative forum, as he said, “This Chintan Shivir can provide us with an opportunity to deep dive into different issues of health sector.” He further spoke on the future of healthcare in India and said, “In this Amrit Kaal, let us take ‘prerna’ (inspiration) from our own knowledge, and develop our own health model. We should resolve to remove burden of diseases such as Leprosy, TB, Sickle Cell Anaemia, etc., from various states, and saturate states with PM-JAY cards.”
He further encouraged participants to share their ideas, so best results can be derived from Swasthya Chintan Shivir, and hoped that the two-day event will deliver outcomes that will go a long way in providing healthcare solutions to the nation.
Pushkar Singh Dhami, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand welcomed everyone to Uttarakhand, and expressed confidence that the deliberations will help to provide definite focus to speedy implementation of government’s health policies. At the event he praised Atal AyushmanYojana, which is providing health security to poor and needy sections of the country. “E-sanjeevani has contributed in a big way to expanding the scope of health services through use of technology”, he stated. He further spoke of the role of “One Earth, One Health” framework, and said, “This framework guides us forward in our collaborative effort to achieve shared goals.”
Sudhansh Pant, Officer on Special Duty, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health Research, as well as other senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and States were present during the event.
Health Ministers including Dhan Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand), Rajini Vidadala (Andhra Pradesh), Alo Libang (Arunachal Pradesh), KeshabMahanta (Assam), Rushikesh Patel (Gujarat), Banna Gupta (Jharkhand), Dinesh Gundu Rao (Karnataka), SapamRanjan Singh (Manipur), Dr R Lalthyangliana (Mizoram), Thiru Ma Subramanian (Tamil Nadu) are participating in the brainstorming conclave. TS Singh Deo (Deputy Chief Minister, and Health Minister, Chhatisgarh), Brajesh Pathak (Deputy Chief Minister, and Health Minister, Uttar Pradesh), BS Pant (Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Sikkim), VishwasSarang (State Medical Education Minister, Madhya Pradesh), K Lakshmi Narayanan (Minister of Public Works, Puducherry) too are participating in the event.